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LIBRARY OFCONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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Origin, Cultivation, 

Manufacture and Use. 




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COPYRIGHT 
L H A U S E R , 
188 9. 



TEA: 



Its Origin, Cultivation, Manufacture and Use. 



By I. L. HAUSER, 



BAREILLY, INDIA. 



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PRICE TWENTY -KIVE CENTS. 




chicago and new york: 
Rand, McNally & Company, Publishers. 

1890. 



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Copyright, 1&S9. 
By I. I.. HAUSER. 



TEA 



' I "EA is the dried leaves of an evergreen shrub, camellia theifcra and 
called chha by the Chinese and natives of India. The following account 
of its origin is given in the " History of Japan," by Kaempfer, who went as 
Dutch embassy to Japan in 1691. The work was 'translated into English 
in 1727 : 

ORIGIN OF TEA. 

" The tea plant is considered by the Japanese to represent the eyebrows of 
Dhurma, an ancient saint among the heathens. It will not be improper here 
to insert the history of this man, not only as it is pleasant and singular in its 
kind, but chiefly as it serves to ascertain the time when, according to the Jap- 
anese, this plant first came into use. Dhurma was the third son of Kasiumo, 
an Indian king. He was a holy and religious person, as it were a pope in the 
Indies, and the eighth and twentieth successor of the Holy See of Siaka, the 
founder of the eastern Paganism, who was an Indian himself and a negro, born 
1,028 years before our Saviour's nativity. About the year of Christ 519 this 
Dhurma came into China. His design was to bring the inhabitants of that 
populous empire to the knowledge of God, and to preach his gospel to them 
as the true and only one that would lead them to salvation. Nor was it only 
with his doctrine that he endeavored to make himself useful to men and 
acceptable unto God. He went still further and strove for divine grace by 
leading an austere and exemplary life, exposing himself to all the injuries of 
the weather, chastising and mortifying his body, and subduing the passions of 
his mind. He lived only upon vegetables, and thought this to be the highest 



degree of holiness to pass days and nights in an uninterrupted satori — that is, 
a contemplation of the Divine Being. To deny all manner of rest and 
relaxation to the body, and to consecrate the mind entirely and without 
intermission to God, was what he took to be sincerest repentance and the 
most eminent degree of perfection human nature could attain to. After a 
continued waking of many years he at last grew so weary of his fatigues and 
fastings that he fell asleep. Awakening next morning and with sorrow 
remembering that he had broken his vow, he resolved to take to severe repent- 
ance, and in the first place, lest the like accident should happen to him here- 
after, he cut off both his eyebrows as the instruments and ministers of his 
crime and then threw them upon the ground. Returning next day to the 
place where he had done this execution, he observed that by a wonderful 
change each eyebrow was become a shrub, and the one which is now called 
tea, whose virtues and use were then as yet unknown to the world, no 
more than the plant itself. Dhurma, eating of the leaves of the plant, 
found with surprise an uncommon joy and gladness to fill his heart and his 
mind endowed with new strength to pursue his divine meditations. This 
uncommon event and the excellent virtues of the leaves of the tea he forth- 
with discovered to the multitudes of his disciples, together with the way of 
using them. If the leaves were to be taken fresh they would affect the head 
very much, having something narcotic in them which intoxicates the animal 
spirits and occasions a trembling, convulsive motion in the nerves. This 
inebriating quality they lose by being dried, and there remains only a virtue of 
gently refreshing the animal spirit. This ill quality is taken off in a good 
measure by a repeated and gradual roasting, though not quite so effectually 
but that some of it still remains which will affect the head, and which they 
cannot be deprived of but by degrees in ten months' time or more. The best 
and most delicate tea which possesses its most refreshing quality in the most 
emment degree must be at least a year old. It is never drank fresher unless 
it be mixed with an equal amount of an older sort. * * * I believe there is no 
plant as yet known in the world whose infusion or decoction, taken so plenti- 
fully as that of tea in Japan, sits so easy upon the stomach, passes so quickly 
through the body, so gently refreshes the drooping animal spirits or recreates 
the mind. 



" Emperor's tea is grown at Udsi, on the sea coast. The grounds are swept 
every day and secluded from intruders. Pickers abstain from coarse food for 
three weeks previous to picking lest they should have bad breaths, bathe 
twice a day and do not pick with bare hands, but gloved. Dried tea, put up 
in paper bags, then in porcelain jars nearly filled with common tea, costs 
from forty-two to fifty-six crowns a pound. I rem.ember that one of the gen- 
tlemen at court presented me with a dish of tea with the foUowmg compli- 
ment: 'Drink heartily and with pleasure, for one dish costs one itzebo,^ a 
square gold coin, worth about twelve or thirteen English shillings." 

Thus ends the ancient chronicler's narrative, which could not well be con- 
densed and be a full account of the origin of tea, so I have been liberal in 
quotation. 

It was well, since silk worms' eggs, concealed in bamboo canes, were taken 
from China by missionaries and introduced into Europe, that a missionary 
from the West should take tea seed with him into China and Japan, even if it 
did cost him his eyebrows. 

Tea trees were discovered in the forests of Assam, about the )'ear 1826. As 
this is the only place in the world where tea has been found indigenous, there 
can be no doubt that some Dhurma from India did carry tea seed with him as 
he went eastward on his mission. 

VARIETIES OF TEA PLANT AND OF ITS PRODUCT. 

There is only one true tea plant, botanically, and that is called camellia 
theifera, and it is now generally conceded that the China plant was from 
Assam seed and became dwarfed by a less congenial climate. Indigenous 
plants or trees are found in the forests of Assam with a diameter of eight and 
twelve inches and from thirty to forty feet high, while the China variety will 
not grow higher than eight feet. That of Assam has one stem and its branches 
are one foot from the ground, while that of China has numerous stems after 
the second year, and its branches are close to the ground. The leaves of the 
As5am variety will grow to a length of ten inches, while those of China never 
more than five. The color of the former is a pale light green, of the latter, a 
dull dark green. The Assam gives more flushes, that is, growths of tender 
leaf. The China is the more hardy, much easier to raise, and will grow where 



the indigenous will not. The two plants have been mixed by the inoculation 
of the pollen of the one with flowers of the other, and the results are called 
" hybrids." This process has been so often repeated that there are now over 
a hundred varieties of the tea plant. The original indigenous is a better plant, 
but does not thrive so well in a garden. The best qualities of black teas are 
made from indigenous and high class hybrids, the nearer the indigenous the 
better. The introduction of the Chinese plant into India is now considered a 
misfortune, as the indigenous produces a much more desirable tea. The 
leaves of the indigenous are of a much finer and softer texture than .those of 
China; the former may be compared to satin, the latter to leather. 

The ordinary tea plants, hybrids, if not cut down would grow to eight or ten 
feet high, with several upright branches containing but a few leaves, or be but 
a straggling bush. I had once near my house on a tea plantation a plant that 
had never been pruned. It was about ten feet high with several upright 
branches projecting from the stem about two feet from the ground, and had 
but few leaves. When cultivated for leaf the shrub is kept pruned three to 
four feet high, and the bush two to three feet in diameter, becomes a mass of 
branches and leaves, making a beautiful as well as a 
useful ornament. 

The shrub will live for thirty to forty years, but will 
not be very productive of leaf after twenty years. The 
stem of an old shrub is several inches in diameter near 
the ground, and has a large tap root that will go down 
to a depth of six feet when not obstructed. 

The full grown leaves are of a glossy green color, 
from two to five inches in length, of elliptical-oblong 
shape, and about an inch in width at the center, ser- 
rated and marked with transverse veins, but differing 
from other leaves in this, that the veins do not go to 
the edge of the leaf, but turn and form a loop with the 
next vein, as seen in the illustration. This is a pecu- 
liarity characteristic of the tea leaf. The old leaves on 
the plant are not picked, as they would be worthless for 
tea, and plucking them would injure or kill the shrub. 




7 

The flowers are slightly odorous and of a pure white color. They are usually 
solitary or at the most two or three together on separate pedicles, at the axils 
of the leaves. When leaf only is desired, and not seed, the flowers are picked 
as soon as they appear in the autumn, and thrown away. The seed takes 
nearly a year to ripen. It is enclosed in a brown shell, ICoking like a hazel 
nut, and when on the shrub is encased, one to four of them, in a bulb like 
that of a hickory nut. When ripe the capsule opens and the nuts drop out. 
The seeds are bitter and astringent. A fine lubricating oil can be made from 
them. 

Soil, climate and cultivation make a great difference in the varieties of the 
plants and in the product, as they do in varieties of fruit and grain. Peaches 
and grapes show very distinctly this difference. A potato raised on a sandy 
soil is altogether another article from that of the same kind of seed grown 
rankly in a muddy bottom. 

The planters have each their own methods of curing. One will take the 
greatest care and observe the exact time for each process, while another will 
be ignorant or indifferent, and the results are what might be expected. One 
skilled in testing teas can tell not only the country but the district, and even 
the plantation on which a particular tea is produced, and he can distinguish 
the teas of two plantations lying side by side, prepared by different managers, 
though both the teas may be pure and of excellent quality. I have often 
been asked, " How is it that so many kinds of tea can be made from the 
same plant ?" and my answer has been, " How can there be so many kinds of 
butter made from cow's milk ?" 

THE CULTIVATION OF THE TEA PLANT. 

It is supposed that the tea plant can be grown only in tropical countries. 
This is not the case, as there are thriving plantations in climates and at alti- 
tudes where for a short season the shrubs are covered with snow, but the hot, 
moist climate and rich soil of Assam are nearly perfect* for tea growing. 
This is particularly so in respect to the growth of the plant and supply of leaf, 
but the Assam teas do not have the delicate fragrance of those grown in the 
dryer atmosphere of the more northern Himalayas. The tea grown in tem- 
perate climates is more delicate in flavor, while that grown in hot climates 



has more body. Tea requires a good soil and to be well tilled. The seeds are 
usually sown thickly in a nursery where the young plants remain for about 
nine months. They are then transplanted in rows about four feet apart each 
way. The ground is kept clean of grass and weeds and well manured. In 
the Himalayas the plantations are usually on the terraced mountain sides, and 
as it is desirable to have the soil receive and retain as much water as possible, 
it is dug deeply with hoes and left very loose. Leaf can be picked after 
three or four years' growth of the shrub. If done sooner the growth of the 
branches would be retarded. Pruning is done annually, during the winter 
season when the sap is clown, with large shears, to increase the number of 
branches, the quantity of leaves, and to keep the shrub a convenient size for 
gathering the leaves. Sometimes the seeds are planted /// siti(, or at 
" stake," as it is called, as stakes are placed to indicate where the trees are to 
be, and the seeds are sown near them. 

THE PLANTATIONS. 

These consist of trom fifty to one thousand acres each. In a convenient spot 
is the manager's bungalow surrounded by fruit trees and flowers, with paths 
leading from it to all parts of the plantation, a delightful place of residence, 
especially as the plantations in the Himalayas are in the finest climate of the 
world; but there is this drawback, that the planter sometimes for months sees 
no one but his own family and laborers. Not far from the bungalow are the 
godotuns, or houses for curing, drying, boxing and storing the tea. Not far 
from the plantation are the villages of the laborers. It requires one laborer 
for every planted acre, besides those employed in the factory. When there 
are no flushes, the laborers are employed in digging the ground, making new 
terraces, repairing the old ones, carrying manure and carrying the tea to the 
nearest railway station, from fifty to one hundred miles distant. In the Hima- 
layas all carrying is done on the backs or heads of natives. During this rest 
season, wood is procured for boxes and charcoal, boxes are made, buildings 
repaired or erected, and everything got ready for picking. 



PROGRESS OF TEA CULTURE IN INDIA. 

An English gentleman, known throughout India and Great Britain for his 
knowledge and interest in the growth and manufacture of tea, who has written 
several books on the subject, and is interested pecuniarily in several planta- 
tions, says: " We have advanced greatly in the last few years; but tea manu- 
facture, as regards economy in doing it, is yet comparatively in its infancy. 
Still we have done a great deal since the indigenous plant was discovered m 
the jungles of Assam, now nearly fifty years ago; we have advanced more in 
tea manufacture than the Chinese, who have been making tea for many cen- 
turies. That is to say, I affirm that the India planter of ordinary intelligence 
knows more of both tea cultivation and tea manufacture to-day than any of 
his Chinese contemporaries. The Chinaman grows tea and makes tea as he 
taught us to do it twenty or thirty years ago. The pupil in this case has cer- 
tainly beat his master. We have made some improvements in tea planting 
and tea cultivation, but where we have left our teachers far behind is in man- 
ufacture. 'Johnny' makes his tea as his father made it before him, taught 
by his grandfather, who made it the same way; and for aught we know no 
improvements in that way have taken place in the course of many centuries. 
All is hand labor; machinery to them is unknown. The most primitive ideas 
in tea manufacture are still adhered to. In support of the latter I will quote 
one instance: Tea from time immemorial has always been dried by charcoal 
in China; no other way is known there now. How is it here in India? A 
large proportion of the produce is fired with other fuel, aided by machinery; 
and it is only a question of time (and a very short time) when the whole of it 
will be thus prepared. I could quote other instances; let this suffice, for no 
comparison can be drawn between tea manufacture as followed out in China 
and India in this year 1881. The former is as crude as it was two or five hun- 
dred years ago; the latter (though still far from perfection) in its many details, 
in its numerous machines cleverly contrived to save labor and better the teas, 
is a striking illustration of the activity, the energy, the inventive genius of the 
Anglo-Saxon race." 

"An Indian tea factory, well set up with machinery, that is to say, with a 
green-leaf drying apparatus, rolling machines, tea dryers, equalizers, and sift- 
ing and sorting machines, all driven by an engine of 15-horse power, offers a 



wonderful contrast to a Chinese tea factory, where all is handwork. But 
more strange still is the comparison alongside of the fact, that in the former 
case, the industry dates back only some thirty years, in the latter, many 
centuries." 

KINDS OF TEA. 

Different kinds of tea can be made from the same bush, and the real dif- 
ference in the grades of pure tea, either black or green, depends mainly on 
the age of the leaf when picked. Those who have strolled through the woods 
in spring-time and picked wintergreen leaves, know that the young shoots 
are preferable to the old woody leaves; as in making hay, the first cut of 
the tender grass is far better than that made from old tough grass. Tea 
can be made of young leaf only. -The younger the leaf the better the tea. 

If the very finest tea is desired the order is given in the morning to pick 
only the tips of the twigs. These are the tiny rolled-up leaves or buds that 
in a day or two would expand into several leaves. When this leaf is dried 
it is of a grayish color, and if closely examined, is covered with a hairy 
down or fuzz. I once showed this kind of tea to a wool buyer. He at once 
took out of his vest pocket a little microscope by which he determined the 
fineness of wool by counting the number of threads in a half inch. Looking 
at one of the little rolled leaves he exclaimed: "Why, this is just like a 
lamb's tail covered with hair ! " Another, a sportsman, said it was like a 
fawn's leg. This tea has a mild, delicate flavor and fragrance, but not 
much body or strength. By most people and the best of judges, the tea 
made from two or three leaves next the tip is preferred, as it has the same 
flavor but more body. But little from the tip is made, as it would take 
too many tips for a pound, destroy too many embryo leaves and be too 
expensive for the general market. So on down the twig to the large old 
tough leaves, that are used for the coarsest and cheapest grades of tea. 

About all the tea made in India is black, as the European demand is 
mainly for that kind. Black tea is made by the oxidation of the leaves while 
being rolled and dried; green tea is made by quickly rolling and drying 
before oxidation takes place. Japan tea is the leaf quickly dried without 
rolling and might be called flat leaf green tea. 



13 

The " Encyclopaedia Brittanica" says: " The color of genuine green tea is 
entirely due to the rapid drying of the fresh leaves which prevents the 
chlorophyle from undergoing any alteration." 

Chlorophyle is the green coloring matter in all plants. 

The difference between black and green tea lies in the manufacture and 
nothing else. 

Mr. Samuel Ball, inspector of teas in China tor the East India company, 
says: " The ease with which starch is converted into sugar is seen in the 
process of germination in the malting of barley; in the ripening of certain 
pulpy fruits; and by the action ot acids. Now there is no one substance so 
uni-versally diffused throughout the vegetable economy as starch. * * It is 
abundant in all the green parts ot plants, especially leaves and fruit, so 
long as the functions of these organs are required. Thus in hay it is 
found in the largest quantity just at the period when the seed is perfected, 
which is the cutting time. In unripe fruits it is found so long as the 
green growth continues; but not a trace when ripe. It is transformed into 
sugar; and the sweetness of the fruit when ripe will always be in exact pro- 
portion to the quantity of starch it contains unripe. * * This change is 
effected by the absorption of oxygen from the air, which converts the starch 
into sugar. * * Ngwly gathered leaves exposed to sun and air, soon begin 
to suffer change; and all organic substances during this state of change 
absorb oxygen from the atmosphere. The green resinous principle of the leaf 
disappears" and in leaves containing tannin, as tea leaves, "red or brown 
coloring matters are formed; the tannic acid disappears, and is replaced by 
sugar." Thus is the loss of tannin in black tea accounted for; and the red 
coloring matter of the leaf, as well as the red infusion, ^explained. 

It is sometimes asserted that green tea cannot be made without the 
use of coloring matter. Once while enjoying a delicious cup of tea with a 
manager, a Scotchman, in his bungalow, I remarked in a bantering way that 
planters were a graceless set of scamps. "Why! What are you going for 
now?" "Oh, nothing, only that they color their tea green and send it out 
to poison the people." He took me in dead earnest, and going to the 
godowH soon sent for me. On entering, he said: " 1 want you to stand 
there by that pan and not stir from it and watch the process from beginning 



14 

to end and see for yourself that green tea can be made without a particle 
of coloring matter." A fire was burning under the cast iron pan. A man 
threw a basket of fresh green leaves, just brought from the bushes for the 
purpose, into the pan and commenced stirring and rolling the leaves around 
the pan, first with one hand and then with the other, for it was hot work, and 
none but a tea roller could have kept his hand in that hot pan of hot 
leaves. He used the palm or ball of his hand in rolling and not the fingers. 
If a single leaf had stuck to the pan it would have been scorched and the 
whole batch been spoiled. In a few minutes there was whipped into the 
basket several pounds of as fine green tea as one could wish, by as simple a 
process as possible and without the least coloring matter. It had the dull 
green color of young, tender new mown hay and its fragrance was delightful. 
I had a cup made from it that evening, but wished for many an hour during 
that long night that the Scotchman had never shown me how pure green tea 
was made. I had rather take opium and dream in a heaven of bliss than to 
be frantically mad from drinking such a tea. Though it is absolutely pure, 
anyone who wishes to sleep or has any regard for his life, would not be a con- 
stant green tea drinker. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding that the Scotch- 
man did show me how pure green tea could be made, there is no doubt that 
most of the green tea is made in another way. It is cheaper and just as easy 
to use coloring matter and old tea grounds. 

Notwithstanding the. abundance of tea grown and the cheapness of the 
ordinary kinds, there is probably not an article of food or drink that is so 
badly adulterated as tea. 

Sometimes tea is colored to suit customers. Once passing through a plan- 
tation owned by a Hindu, the only one I know of belonging to a native, 
I saw them making tea. I handled it in the pan and felt and saw that it was 
colored. I asked why they colored it and the native manager replied that it 
was for the Bhotias, Tibetans, who would not buy it unless it was of such a 
color, and that they specially asked that it should be colored. Powdered 
soapstone was thrown into the pan while the tea was moist and being rolled. 
The tea had a whitish gray appearance and a slippery, greasy touch. This 
was a pure tea and the coloring matter harmless and only put in to please the 
Bhotias. For the same reason, the Chinese make tea green to please the 



15 

Melican man, because the American people want it green, and the greener 
the better, so more indigo and Prussian blue is thrown into the pan. All 
nonsense about the copper pan. A Chinaman would never use copper, when 
an iron pan is so much cheaper, and coloring materials so plentiful, besides 
a copper pan would not do the business ; " allee samee," he would make 
white tea, blue or red tea, if " Melican man likee so so." 

Coloring with soapstone is but an innocent matter compared with the 
adulterations made by the heathen Chinee, and the worse heathen in 
Europe and America. Once at St. Paul I was told that there was a man 
from India there in the tea business. I found him in a large loft among the 
wholesale houses. He was a Mr. Jackson, the inventor, with his brother, of 
several machines for rolling and drying tea, that are now used in India. He 
had malarial fever and was obliged to leave India. He went to San Fran- 
cisco and thence to Washington, where he met Mr. Lc Due, Commissioner 
of Agriculture, who engaged him to start a tea plantation in South Carolina, 
for the government. On the commissioner leaving office the project was 
given up, and Mr. Jackson went to St. Paul. As I entered his office and saw 
no one, I went on through an open door into a large room, extending from one 
end of the building to the other, where I found him. He was very reserved, 
and turned to go out, as if he did not wish me to see his business, but when 
I told him I was from India he received me very cordially. All through the 
great room were piles of tea open on the floor. At the farther end was an 
engine and a kind of fanning-mill. When I asked him what he was doing, 
he said, " I am cleaning tea for the merchants, by running it through this 
mill, trying to get out some of the poison, and it is killing me, breathing this 
poisonous dust. Look here," and he drew his fingers across a shelf, leaving 
deep marks in the green dust. Everything was covered with it. His face was 
wan and haggard, and he looked more fit for a hospital than for work. When 
I asked him why he did not quit the business, he replied that he knew nothing 
but tea, and had to do it for a living. A few months afterward I was again in 
St. Paul and called at his place, but he had gone to the hospital, When I 
spoke of going to see him I was told that no one was allowed to visit him. A 
few days after, meeting an undertaker and referring to India, he said he had 
just buried a Mr. Jackson from that country; that the man had been 



i6 

poisoned to death cleaning green tea. The people who drink such tea take 
the poison in small quantities along with their food, and work off the effects 
in a measure, yet it is poison and cannot be harmless. 

Various substances are used in coloring and weighting tea, such as sub- 
acetate of copper, indigo and turmeric mixed together to make a bright veg- 
etable green, sulphate of lime or gypsum, to give the tea a grayish, smooth 
glossy color, glucose, to make the gypsum adhere to the tea, Prussian blue, 
Dutch pink, soapstone, graphite, rice starch, and foreign leaves. Kaolin, or 
porcelain clay, is shipped In. quantities from the United States to China, which 
the Chinese buy to mix with tea. Japan tea is largely made up of leaves other 
than from the tea shrub. These consist principally of wisteria, willow, a 
species of ash, and other species of shrubs. 

Much of the tea is colored after it leaves China and Japan. If a cargo of 
tea is damaged on the voyage, or if it lacks color, it is doctored in Europe or 
America to suit the market. A merchant in an eastern city, a very large 
dealer, makes a business of buying damaged or inferior teas. He buys them 
at almost nothing, doctors and sends them off to the country and sells them 
from thirty to fifty cents a pound. He was never known to buy any but rejected 
or inferior teas, and has accumulated a fortune as a tea doctor. 

In China no tea grounds are thrown away. They are re-dried, mixed with 
new tea or colored. Much of the green is made from exhausted leaves, and 
the only strength it has, is derived from the chemicals that give it pungency 
and color, and the old or young ladies who color their ribbons with green tea 
leaves may be assured that it is not the tea, but the drugs in it, that does the 
coloring. It is not only in China that exhausted leaves or those that have 
been used are reclaimed for further use. A gentleman called on an acquaint- 
ance of his, an engineer in a large tea house in an eastern city. While con- 
versing in the engine-room, a two-horse wagon, filled with barrels of tea 
grounds, drove up to the alley door. On asking what they were going to do 
with that stuff, the engineer replied : " Oh, we will send it up-stairs, heat it, 
roll it, dry it and mix it with some new tea, and send it off to the country for 
fifty cents." On further inquiry it appeared that the company had a contract 
with the leading hotels lor all their tea grounds, and sent its wagons round 
daily to gather them in. 



17 

At the special request of an India tea planter, I once took a number of 
samples of his teas to New York. A prominent tea broker invited a number 
of his friends, all tea brokers and importers. After testing, all declared that 
it was the finest lot of teas they had ever seen, but unanimously agreed that 
they were too good for the American market, as the Americans wanted 
cheap tea. 

It is a world-wide fact that most of the inferior, refuse teas, such as will sell 
nowhere else, are dumped into the American market, and the great Amer- 
ican people, so " cute" in most things, and with a reputation for driving sharp 
bargains, think they are very shrewd and do a big stroke of business when 
they get cheap teas. They might as well buy tough or damaged meat of a 
butcher, at a few cents a pound, and try to delude themselves that they had 
got the best meat, as to think they are getting pure, fine tea when they buy it 
cheap. It is well known by all Oriental tea shippers that America is the 
poorest market of the world for the finest and best teas, so these are shipped 
to Europe and Russia, the latter being the best market for them. 

The Rev. Wm. Speer, D.D., a missionary of the American Presbyterian 
Board in China, writes: " The green tea obtains its complexion in most of 
what is exported, from the presence of coloring matter. By some of those 
perverse tastes which obtain among us, our early tea purchasers betrayed a 
strange predilection for a certain color. ' Foreigners,' said the Chinese, ' like 
their tea uniform and pretty,' so they poison the herb to gratify the ridiculous 
tastes of England and America for bright green, just as many of our pickle 
makers poison their pickles. They throw in a blue substance commonly 
known as Prussian blue or prussiate of iron (cyanide of potassium and iron), 
and they mix with it a quantity of gypsum. They never think of drinking 
this tea themselves, but the more gypsum and blue they can communicate to 
the tea, the higher becomes its value in the eyes of their best customers, and 
the dyeing process goes on in China to an alarming extent. It is calculated 
that in every hundred pounds of the cheaper green tea consumed by our peo- 
ple, more than half a pound ot coloring matter is contained." 

The "Cyclopedia Brittanica" says: "The green tea sent out of China is 
almost invariably faced or glazed with artificial coloring matter." 



i8 

"Johnson's Cyclopedia :" " The restoration of a poor grade of tea and the 
conversion from black to green (or Tice versa) are in constant practice in 
England and the United States, and have given rise to a special branch ot 
industry." 

In reclaiming black tea but little coloring matter is required, and that not 
of a poisonous nature. Exhausted leaves or tea grounds can be easily redricd 
and rolled, and if a small quantity of new tea is mixed with them they can be 
easily passed olf as good, cheap black tea. Damaged black teas can be 
moistened or washed, heated, re-rolled, and, if off color, be faced with some 
licorice, burnt sugar water, catechu, graphite, or other substances. There can 
be this satisfaction to the drinker ot cheap black tea, that if he has been 
deceived in the quality and cheated in the purchase, he is not liable to be 
poisoned, as in drinking cheap green tea. It is best always to get all the 
comfort we can out of our misfortunes. 

THE TEA TRADE. 

On this the London Standard says: "If the tea trade is ceasing to be as 
profitable as it used to be, j the tea drinker is also well aware that the quality 
of the stuff sold is ng longer what it was. Japan, India and Ceylon send us 
very sound teas, though the English palate has still to be fully educated to a 
liking for these brands. China, which at one time had a monopoly of the 
supply, is falling off. It has still rare samples for those who can pay for them. 
But few buyers being at hand, the importers naturally prefer to minister to 
the coarser tastes of the less opulent public. Accordingly, every year seems 
to bring cheaper and cheaper and \vorse and worse teas into England. Every- 
body wants something that costs little, and after a course of cheap teas the 
buyer loses the appetite for good ones. He is even unable to distinguish a first- 
class from an inferior article. For fifty men who can talk wine there is not one 
woman who has an educated taste for tea. A well-to-do citizen would scorn 
to ask his guests to drink a bottle of the acrid vintage which is associated with 
the Premier's name, and will instantly send from the table a bottle of corked 
wine; yet that same host will himself drink and offer to his friends tea which 
a coolie in Canton or Yokohoma would toss into the street. The housewife 
who considers three shillings and sixpence (90 cents) a sufficient price for the 



19 

best of tea would be astonished to hear cf Japanese growths worth ^3 and £4, 
or to be told that in Russia, opulent families rarely drink anything under ten 
or twelve shillings ($2.50 or $3.00). Even now plenty of the best India teas 
bring at auction as much as three shillings and sixpence (90 cents) to four 
shillings per pound wholesale, though these fine brands, like the best qualities 
of China teas, are usually disposed of privately. Of the 70,000,000 pounds 
of India tea sold every year in England fully 40,000,000 pounds are of a 
higher quality than anything received from China, but people prefer the 
poorer sorts simply because they are supposed to be cheaper. What is worse, 
the Chinese, finding that the rage among the western barbarians is all for 
cheapness, minister to our deteriorated taste by sending us worse qualities 
than they used to do, or reserve the best for themselves or for the Russians, 
who not only know what is good, but are ready to back their opinions with 
their purses. A little more ex*fravagance in this direction would be excusable. 
Economy in tea drinking is wastefulness." 

PACKING AND SHIPPING OF TEA. 

Most of the tea from China, Japan, and considerable from India, is put up 
in the flimsiest kind of chests, scarcely holding together till they reach the 
market. On this account all the genuine, natural flavor of the tea is lost, and 
besides, tea being a most sensitive absorbent, absorbs very quickly the effluvia 
or fragrance of everything near it. Once, on leaving a plantation, my friend, 
the manager, presented me with a small box of very fine tea for use on my 
journey. The box was opened and kept in a trunk with other articles. 
Reaching home and leaving the trunk unopened for a few days, I then found 
the tea had a very peculiar fragrance and flavor that I had not observed in it 
at first. At last I discovered the cause. My tea had borrowed or stolen its 
fragrance from some highly scented soap kept in a package in the same 
trunk. 

The hold of a ship is a kind of chemical laboratory in which are com- 
pounded more smells than were ever heard of in Cologne. Place the broken 
and open chests of tea along with hides, bilge water, rusty iron, tobacco, 
gums, resins, jute, a heterogeneous mass of essences and smells in a close 
air-tight oven or retort, which the hold of a vessel becomes as it passes 



20 

through the tropics, and — well, such tea needs a doctor before it can go into 
market. 

Tea should not be left open near other substances, as onions, kerosene oil, 
codfish, spices, unless the grocer or housekeeper wishes to furnish a kind of 
Irish stew broth instead of tea. It all depends on what is wanted. If it is 
real tea that is desired, then buy that kind, preserve it carefully and make it 
properly. 

It is absurd to say that tea cannot be packed so as to retain all its original 
flavor, and be absolutely free from that of other substances. 

If Mr. Armour and others can put up meat in air-tight cans to remain good 
lor years in the tropics, why cannot such an article as tea be kept in the same 
manner? If tea is properly packed it can be sent by caravan or steamer, 
overland or underland, or be towed through the sea, for that matter, and be 
just as pure and fragrant as the day it was put up. 

Some years ago I adopted the following method, and the results have been 
so satisfactory that I have never thought of changing it. The tea is first 
packed in lead, soldered up air-tight in ten-pound packages. Each lead 
package is enclosed in a stout wooden box. After this box is nailed up 
paper is pasted all round it. The package is now doubly air-tight. Four 
of these ten-pound boxes are then put in a very tight wood box, which is 
strongly nailed. This outer box is covered with strong hemp cloth, and this 
is covered all over with tar. i,ooo pounds of tea when packed weighs 
2,250 pounds, so that the packing alone weighs 1,250 pounds, or 250 pounds 
more than the tea itself. These packages are so well made and secured 
that they might be thrown into water and left for months, or be taken on 
a voyage of years and the tea be as pure, dry and fragrant as when it was 
packed on the plantation. I might say that a European is manager of the 
plantation and has the leaf picked for me that I prefer, and follows implicitly 
my directions in regard to the packing. 

It is the fashion among some to talk of " new-crop tea," and " this year's 
picking," but those who really understand what good tea is, know that it 
improves with age, as wine becomes mellow with years, but both tea and wine 
must be hermetically preserved. 



AN ORIENTAL FIVE O'CLOCK TEA. 

Professor Edmund S. Morse, in "Japanese Homes and Their Surround- 
ings," gives a careful description of many varieties of tea hiouses in Japan, 
and a brief summary of the tea ceremonies. He says: 

" A volume might be filled with a description of the various forms of build- 
ings connected with tea observances, and, indeed, another might be filled with 
the minor details associated with their different schools. In brief, the party 
comes about by the host inviting a company of four to attend the tea cer- 
emony, and in their presence making the tea in a bowl, after prescribed 
forms, and offering it to the guests. To be more explicit as to the mode of 
conducting this ceremony, the tea is first prepared by grinding it to a fine, 
almost impalpable powder. This may be done by a servant before the assem- 
blage of guests, or maybe ordered ground from a tea shop; indeed, the host 
may grind it himself. 

This material, always freshly ground for each party, is usually put in a 
little earthen jar having an ivory cover, the well-known cha-ire of the col- 
lector. Lacquer boxes may also be used for this purpose. The principal uten- 
sils used in the ceremony consist of Ti. furo or fire-pot, made of pottery, or 
made of a depression in the floor, partially filled with ashes, in which charcoal 
may be placed; an iron kettle to boil the water, a bamboo dipper of the most 
delicate construction, to dip out the water; a wide-mouthed jar from which 
to replenish the water in the kettle; a bamboo spoon to dip out the powdered 
tea; a bamboo stirrer not unlike certain forms of egg-beaters, by which the tea ^ 
is briskly stirred after the hot water has been added; a square silk cloth with 
which to wipe the jar and spoon properly: a little rest for the tea-kettle cover 
made of pottery or bronze or section of bamboo ; a shallow vessel in which 
the rinsings of the tea bowl are poured after washing; a brush, consisting of 
three feathers of the eagle or some other large bird, to dust the edge of the 
fire vessel, and, finally, a shallow basket in which is not only charcoal to 
replenish the fire, but a pair of metal rods or hibas/ii, to handle the coal; two 
interrupted rings by which the kettle is lifted off the fire; a circular mat upon 
which the kettle is placed and a small box containing incense or bits of wood 
that give out a peculiar fragrance when burned. With the exception of the 
fire vessel and iron kettle, all these vessels have to be brought in by the host 



with great formality and in a certain sequence, and placed with great preci- 
sion upon the mats after the prescribed rules of certain schools. In the mak- 
ing of tea the utensils are used in a most exact and formal manner. 

" To watch the making of the tea, knowing nothing about the ceremony, 
seems as grotesque a performance as one can well imagine. Many of the 
forms connected with it seem uselessly absurd, and yet, having taken many 
lessons in the art of tea making, I found that, without exception, it was nat- 
ural and easy, and the guests assembled on such occasions, though at first sight 
appearmg stiff, are always perfectly at their ease. 

" The proper placing of the utensils and the sequence in handling them and 
making the tea, are all natural and easy movements, as I have said. The 
light wiping of the tea jar and the washing of the bowl, and its wiping with so 
many peripheral jerks; the droppmg of the stirrer against the side of the bowl 
with a click in rinsing, and a few of the other usual movements are certainly 
grotesquely formal enough, but I question whether the etiquette of a ceremo- 
nious dinner party at home, with the decorum observed in the proper use of 
each utensil does not strike a Japanese as equally odd and incomprehensible, 
when experienced by him for the first time. Many books are devoted to the 
exposition of different schools of tea ceremonies, illustrated with diagrai.is, 
showing the various ways of placing the utensils, plans of the tea rooms, and 
all the details involved in the observances." 

Professor Morse gives six illustrations showing different styles of tea rooms. 

ANALYSIS OF TEA. 

There are lour principal ingredients in tea. First, an aromatic, volatile oil 
which gives the tea its odor or fragrance, which though not observed in the 
fresh leaves is developed in the curing or firing. This oil is in such minute 
proportions that there is only a single pound of it in a hundred pounds of tea. 
Damaged teas, or those left exposed to the air, leaves that are boiled or left 
uncovered in the pot, lose this element so essential to a good, fragrant cup 
of tea. 

Secondly, a principle called theine, similar to coffeine in coffee or cocoaine 
in cocoa. The proportions of this vary in different kinds of teas, ranging from 
two to six per cent. 



23 

Thirdly, tannin, which gives tea its bitter, astringent taste. There is about 
a third more tannin in green tea than in black. 

Fourthly, a vegetable substance called gluten, the same as that '.vhich gives 
grain its nutritive qualities. Youinan^s HojiseJwld Science says: " But the leaves 
contain another constituent, viz.: gluten, which not being dissolved by hot 
water is usually lost with the dregs and grounds. The proportion of this is 
stated to be as high as 25 per cent., so that the leaves by exhaustion or steep- 
ing are still highly nutritious. In some countries it is customary to eat them." 
In keeping tea and in making it, great care should be taken to preserve all 
these elements in the same proportion that nature has provided them. 

TEA MAKING. [^ 

Many or most people do not know how, or are too careless and indifferent, to 
make tea properly. Buckle was a most fastidious tea drinker. He declared 
that no woman could make tea until he taught her, and insisted that the cups 
and even the spoons should be warmed. Those who have resided in India 
and enjoyed its delicious tea say, after visiting in the United States, that they 
hardly ever got a cup of tea that they cared to drink. Even the best tea can 
be spoiled in the making, as the best ot flour can be turned into poor bread, 
and the best potato or steak be ruined by the cooking. 

HOW TO SPOIL TEA. 

If you want to spoil your good tea this is the way to do it. Take water 
that has been standing in an old ill-flavored bucket for several hours. Pour 
this into an old tea kettle with its sides covered with lime. Place the kettle 
over a slow fire and let it boil for an hour or more until the life has all gone 
out of it, then put it on the back part of the stove to simmer and become cold 
until you wish to make tea. Put the tea leaves into an old rusty, musty, cold 
teapot and pour on the water that is nearly cold. Place the pot on the table 
without a cover, while you put the food on the table and call the folks. After 
awhile pour out into thick, cold teacups, add cold milk and sugar, and lastly 
put in the cold spoons. You then have something — not for a heathen Chinee 
or Hindu, for they v/ould not drink such a mess — but for careless Americans, 



24 

who do not know any better or care little what they dr-ink, only that it is 
cheap, wet and warm. 

HOW TO MAKE TEA. , 

If you really want a good ctip of tea try this method. First, get real, gen- 
uine black tea — India is the best — keep it air-tight, in close-fitting stoppered 
glass jars, if possible. Just before you wish your tea make a brisk fire, get 
fresh water directly from the spring, well or hydrant. Pour it into a clean 
kettle and boil it quickly. Scald your earthen tea pot and place it empty on 
the back part of the stove a tew minutes, to drive out all the stale vapor. Put 
into the teapot a teaspoonful of leaves to a half pint of water if you wish 
only a moderate strength. Be sure that the water is boiling, not that steam 
comes out of the spout — a common delusion — but that bubbles, " cat's eyes," 
are in the water. Just when the water boils, not one minute before or a min- 
ute after, so as to catch the very life of the water, pour it on to the tea, and 
over the teapot on the table place the cosy to keep in all the heat and fra- 
grance. Have a bowl of hot water on the tea tray. Take each thin teacup by 
the handle and dip it into the hot water. Also dip the spoons into the bowl. 
Shake the teapot a little to bring the water out of the spout, and to equalize 
the infusion, or use a wire tea stirrer. Do all this as cjuickly as you can and 
pour the tea. Then put in the sugar and good cream. " Drink heartily and 
with pleasure," for this is tea. If this does not please you, then be a tea- 
totaler. 

THE BHOTEA OR TIBETAN METHOD. 

When traveling in the Himalayas, I have often met parties of Bhoteas — 
the name Tibet is not known among them — with their caravans of yuks, 
Bhotea cattle, sheep and goats on which were carried various kinds of mer- 
chandise from Bhot to the plains of India. There was always in each party 
a man or woman carrying a wooden covered bucket or churn shaped vessel 
in which was a boiled mixture of tea leaves, butter and water ; that had 
been prepared the night previous or in the morning before starting. When 
any one was hungry a visit was made to the bucket for a lunch. They did 
not seem to need any other food during the day. " For a breakfast of ten 
persons in Tibet, this," says Moorcroft, "would be the preparation : About one 



25 

ounce of brick tea, and a like quantity of soda, are boiled in a quart of water 
for one hour, or until the leaves of the tea are sufficiently steeped. It is 
then strained and mixed with ten quarts of boiling water, in which an ounce 
and a half of fossil salt has been previously dissolved. The whole is then put 
into a narrow cylindrical churn, along with the butter, and well stirred 
with a churning stick, till it becomes a smooth, oily, and brown liquid 
the color and consistence of chocolate, from which it is transferred to a teapot 
for immediate use." 

Mr. Manning describes another method : " A small quantity of flour is 
put into an iron vessel over a slow fire and gradually parched; to which 
is added a small portion of butter. These two ingredients are then stirred 
and formed into a paste; to which is added at intervals a portion of the 
strong decoction of tea, the whole being constantly stirred and well mixed, 
and blended together. It is then diluted with milk or water and churned. 
I also understood that it is poured from one vessel into another backwards 
and forwards several times. It obviously thus forms not merely a refreshing 
beverage, but a somewhat nutritious meal." 

Mr. Manning found this mixture so agreeable to his taste, that he fre- 
quently indulged in its use for breakfast on his return to England. ^ 

In Tibet, Moorcroft informs us that all classes of Tibetans eat three meals 
a day. The first consists of tea; the second of tea, or of meal porridge, if 
tea cannot be afforded; the third of meat, rice, vegetables and bread by the 
upper, and soup and meat by the lower classes. At breakfast each person 
drinks about five or ten cups of tea, each cup containing about one-third of a 
pint, and when the last is half finished, he mixes with the remainder as much 
barley meal as makes a paste with it, which he eats. At the midday meal, 
those who can afford tea, take it again with the wheaten cakes, accompanied 
with a paste of wheat flour, butter and sugar, served hot. Captain Turner 
says, " that habit not only rendered this camp custom agreeable to our tastes, 
but experience most fully proved that warm liquids at all hours, contribute to 
alleviate the sensation of fatigue. I was never more disposed to praise the 
comfortable practice of the country, having constantly observed that the first 
object of attention with every man, at the end of a long journey, is to pro- 
cure for himself a dish of hot tea." 



26 



PECULIARITIES OF TEAS. 

There is a great difference in the teas of Cliina, Japan and India. The 
two former are more pungent, somewhat bitter and more quickly affect 
the nervous system, while that of India is richer in color, milder, and has 
what some call an herby, or a flavor like that of new mown hay. Some 
who have used China and Japan tea, at first, do not like that of India, but 
soon become accustomed to it so as to prefer it above all others. 

SOME SUGGESTIONS. l-^ 

If* tea be ground like coffee just before steeping, it will yield much more 
strength and a finer flavor, for the reason that all the elements in the tea 
are dissolved at once, and the infusion is composed of the proper proportion 
of each ingredient. When ground, tea is ready as soon as the boiling water 
is poured upon it. 

When the leaves are not ground a lump of sugar in the teapot will hasten 
the infusion. 

A " cosey" is a wadded cover made to fit the tea pot. It is generally shaped 
in two half-circles, stitched around, lined and corded. It can be made very 
ornamental by braiding or crewel work. 

Tea," a la Russe " is much liked by some people. It is to place a piece of 
peeled, well sugared lemon at the bottom of each cup before pouring over it 
the tea, hot and strong. Iced tea can be served in the same way. 

The wealthy Japanese continue the ancient mode of grinding the leaves to 
powder; and after infusion in a cup it is whipped with a split bamboo or 
denticulated instrument until it creams, when they drink both the infusion 
and powder, as coffee is used in many parts of Asia. 

There can be no doubt of the advantage derived from grinding tea, and 
any one interested in having a good cup, should try the experiment. 

Cream is essential in making good tea. The Mongols use rich milk, the 
Tibetans butter, which takes the place of cream. In some parts of China, 
the people do not use milk or cream, for the reason they cannot get it. 

Johnson's " Chemistry of Common Life," suggests that " a pinch of soda 
b^ put into the water along with the tea to dissolve the gluten and make the 
beverage more nutritious." 



27 

The Tibetans use soda, probably without knowing why, only that their 
forefathers did so. I have found many customs prevalent among what are 
termed uncivilized people, for which they can give no scientific reason, that 
are most essential and beneficial. 

Tea contains more nitrogen tlian any other vegetable substance yet exam- 
ined, which will account for its being so nutritious. 

Mankind everywhere craves stimulating food and drink. Many an appetite 
would be satisfied with a good, strong, nourishing cup of tea instead of alco- 
holic beverages, if the tea was only provided. 

Good pure water is very essential, that from a spring the best. A bon 
vivant in Chicago says he always uses Waukesha water with the best results. 
The color of a good "liquor" in a china cup is that of a bright, new, copper 
cent. Finally, get pure, good black tea, have everything in order, make 
in a hurry, and drink " right away." 



Bareily, India, 
Tea put up on the plantation expressly 
for tc-:i6umers and sent to them in the 
original packages. 

I. L. HAUSER & CO 
P. 0. BOX 407. 

;0, ILL. 





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